In November 2021 the Governance of Sociotechnical Transformation (GoST) Project organized two workshops focusing on issues related to urban transformations.

Hundreds of cities worldwide are currently undergoing transformation processes based on the promise of using “smart”technologies in order to meet the sustainability challenges of the 21st century. Following the GoST approach, the first event ‘Comparing Smart City Transformations. GoST Workshop on socio-technical transformations towards smart cities‘ sought to explore crucial but neglected governance issues in areas of urban digital infrastructure/smart cities by uncovering multi-dimensionalities and temporalities of socio-technical transformations on the ground. Based on case studies in a variety of countries, the workshop and related special issue (forthcoming) seek to explore how transformations towards smart cities are governed, by whom, to what end, and with what consequences.

On the 29th of November, a workshop on ‘Policy Pathways in Urban Transformation in Kenya’ set out to test and validate the picture obtained in GoST project research of key contrasting dimensions in urban transformations in Kenya; to identify plural insights and implications in this area that are applicable in other sectors, and to map-out pathways that address the identified dimensions. Key questions included: What contrasting dimensions in Urban Transformation exist? What are the divergent dimensions of sustainable transformation in other sectors? What policy pathways can build on ongoing research and practice to inform policy? Download the event flyer.